Hawaii Dem blasts Obama’s airstrikes

“Airstrikes are the wrong response to this situation,” Hanabusa said Thursday. “Getting involved in airstrikes moves us a dangerous step closer to direct involvement in Iraq’s sectarian civil war, an entanglement we must avoid.”

ADVERTISEMENT

On Thursday, Obama said he authorized the military airstrikes in an effort to help Kurdish fighters and refugees under siege from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Islamic militants recently gained control of a dam and cut off water supplies to parts of the region.

Obama also authorized humanitarian airdrops of water and other supplies to help refugees who have fled from ISIS.

“I fully support humanitarian aid to those trapped by ISIS in the Sinjar Mountains,” Hanabusa said. “We cannot allow a humanitarian crisis to draw us into a war that would again cost the Iraqi people far too much in destruction and lives lost.”

Hanabusa is running against Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) for the Senate in Obama's home state this November. Schatz hasn’t commented about Obama’s decision to use airstrikes in Iraq.